Corey Dickstein/Savannah Morning News Joe Forlenza, a former Army major who retired after serving as an intelligence officer in the 3rd Infantry Division, has been a firefighter in Richmond Hill since 2008.

Orchestrating an attack against enemy fighters on a battlefield isn’t terribly different than putting out a structure fire.

Both require tremendous discipline, teamwork and coordination. And they’re both ingrained with a certain amount of danger.

It was those similarities — not to mention a boyhood dream — that led Joe Forlenza to the firefighting world after he completed a 20-year Army career that culminated with the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

“People ask me if I miss the Army and I tell them I found a replacement,” said Forlenza, who has worked at the Richmond Hill Fire Department since June 2008. “The replacement is firefighting because it’s the same thing. You have to work independently but as part of a team effort just like in the Army. You just never know what’s going to happen when you show up to work — a devastating wreck, a brush fire or structure fire, or nothing.

“Anything can happen at anytime — that’s what I like about firefighting.”

Forlenza, who will turn 50 years old next week, began his Army career as an enlisted infantryman before attending Officer Candidate School and receiving a commission as a 2nd lieutenant of infantry. But it was the second half of his career — as an intelligence officer — that he claims was more interesting.

“You saw things I didn’t even know we were capable of,” he said. “Infantry is physically demanding, and leadership roles in infantry are certainly more demanding, but Intel — especially at the boots on the ground level — was really something.”

In the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks Forlenza — then serving as the intelligence officer for the 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade at Fort Stewart — was summoned to become part of a team at U.S. Central Command — the entity that oversees all U.S. military activity in theMiddle East — at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., that under the direction of Army Gen. Tommy Franks worked to identify and target top leaders of al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

After a year, Forlenza, a major, returned to the 3rd Infantry Division as the division operations officer and deployed to Kuwait as tensions between the U.S. and Iraq built.

On his 41st birthday — March 19, 2003 — Forlenza and the 3rd Infantry Division crossed into Iraq as the Army’s first traditional ground forces to invade the country, beginning Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“We worked to basically move all the intelligence assets around the battlefield,” Forlenza said. “When you’re in a war you’ve got a lot of stuff that’s thrown at you and you need to coordinate it all and put it where it needs to go.”

As the division marched west and then north it met less resistance than anticipated on its way to Baghdad.

“It’s a funny thing about that mission. We never had more than a battalion engaged at any time, which we really didn’t expect,” Forlenza said. “So, we ended up arriving in Baghdad ahead of schedule.”

The 3rd ID soldiers seized that city’s airport while others pushed into its center and helped capture it. With 2nd Brigade, Forlenza moved west to Fallujah after Baghdad fell and returned to Fort Stewart in Summer 2003.

“I’d say that was the pinnacle of my Army career,” Forlenza said. “Everyone serves to serve in wartime, and that wasn’t any different for me.”

Not long after returning home, Forlenza retired from the military and worked as a contractor for two years before volunteering as a firefighter in 2006 with the South Bryan Fire Department.

In 2008 he was hired as a paid firefighter by the Richmond Hill Fire Department and he plans to continue fighting fires as long as he can.

“As long as I can hold a hose I’m going to be doing this,” Forlenza said. “The stark reality is that age is going to catch up with it.